Sustaining Gardens and Grounds

Campaign priority

Sustaining Gardens and Grounds

Jefferson chose the site for Monticello because of its intimacy with nature. Surrounded by the rolling Piedmont Virginia countryside, his little mountaintop evolved into a testing ground for new world horticulture. From the orchards and vineyards to the vegetable gardens and the grove, Monticello’s cultivated landscape bears the fingerprints of its architect—complex, innovative, and distinctly American.

The gardens and grounds at Monticello comprise a living, breathing chapter of Jefferson’s three-dimensional autobiography.

Through critical investments in people and programs, your support will advance our work to fully realize Jefferson’s ambitious planting schemes—and to share the mountaintop with future generations of visitors.

Our stewardship of Jefferson’s horticultural legacy now encompasses tours and on-site programming, robust virtual resources, boutique vineyards, and the beloved Saunders-Monticello Trail. The Foundation’s mission of preservation and education is exemplified by the work of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants, established in 1987 to collect, preserve, and distribute historic plant varieties. With continued support, these initiatives reveal the landscape of Monticello as Jefferson designed it—a vibrant combination of working farm, botanic showpiece, and experimental laboratory.

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.”
—Thomas Jefferson, 1811

Funding Opportunities

$50,000
Support the annual maintenance of the Saunders-Monticello Trail $500,000
Name a fund to support the vineyards and orchards at Monticello $1,000,000
Name and endow a fund for the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants $2,500,000
Name and endow Monticello’s Director of Gardens and Grounds $5,000,000
Name and endow Monticello’s Department of Gardens and Grounds